The Great Abraham Lincoln

The first lesson is that husbands need to listen to their wives.

This was such an enjoyable book.

The first lesson is that husbands need to listen to their wives. If Lincoln had listened to his wife, Mary, he probably wouldn't have died that night. And most likely, he wouldn't have been assassinated. Mary told Lincoln to stay back at home. His friends told him to stay home. His colleagues told him to stay home. His cabinet members went as far as running away from him just so he could stay at home. Stanton refused to accept to go to the theatre with him, and Grant followed his wife so they could get away from the city. Still, the stubborn Lincoln went with his wife.

All the world knows what happened on 15 April 1865.

He was a stubborn man, as you can see with his death. But could such a man have achieved what he achieved with that stubbornness? I doubt it. The odds were stacked against Lincoln every step of the way. From birth to death, he was fighting. He needed that resolve.

First, he needed the resolve in order to leave home. He then needed the resolve to get an education; he taught himself most things. He needed the resolve to run businesses that were on the brink of collapse. He needed the resolve to run for public office for the first time in a city where he was a first-time dweller. He needed the resolve to become a lawyer. He needed the resolve to marry a woman who was socially higher than him. He needed the resolve to run the political parties he was involved in Illinois. He needed the resolve to run for president in a race that even he himself acknowledged he had no chance in the first ballot. He needed the resolve during the war. And he needed the resolve to end slavery.

Folks, that was Abraham Lincoln. The resolve took him far. And took him to his death.

His wife, who more than any other human being understood and recognized the greatness in her husband before anyone else, said once he committed his heart to a thing, no one can change it.

Lincoln, the great man, is well known, but few know about Lincoln as a politician. His political acumen is underrated.

When Stanton said Lincoln belongs to the ages, he truly does. Every generation will find something in Lincoln. So far as men will need leaders, we will continue to go back to this one who was an exceptional leader in many ways. So far as men will face hard times, we will always go back to this one who faced hard times and came out victorious.

Here lies Lincoln, one of the finest of men.